The last time we saw Lorde, she was on a beach in New Zealand running around in a bright yellow romper and singing about wellness culture and the exigence of the environment on her third album: 2021’s Solar Power.

It was an era that felt most unlike the Lorde we had come to know over the years—she morphed into a relenting, altruistic, and superficial being who poised herself as a cultural commentator rather than an interpersonal one, which read as more performative than singular.

But now, with ‘What Was That’—the lead single from her upcoming fourth album—we see the artist return to form towards a more contemplative and tormented self, the likes of which we haven’t seen since we first discovered them in the high points of her debut, Pure Heroine, and drenched throughout her (in my opinion, magnum opus of a sophomore album) Melodrama.

This return to form is mirrored in the persona shift we’ve seen in the character of Lorde over the past few months. Swapping out her bohemian, Stevie Nicks inspired wardrobe for a more brutalist, monotone one, hanging out and performing with hyperpop artists such as Charli XCX and A.G. Cook, and returning to more abstract visuals in photoshoots and the ‘What Was That’ music video is undoubtedly an indication of where she’s at in life.

Similarly, her impromptu text inviting fans to meet her at Washington Square Park in New York City on Tuesday night that ended in hundreds of fans swarming the park to the point of the police shutting it down is indicative of her re-realization that she is, indeed, a powerhouse—something she seems to have forgotten after the commercial and critical failure of Solar Power.

‘What Was That’ is in many ways a reinvention of Lorde, but above all else, it’s a re-connection to who she is as both an artist and person.

After a period of mid-tempo music with removed production on her third album, ‘What Was That’ sees Lorde regress from the healed character she embodies in the trite lyricism of Solar Power and transform into a heartbroken and scorned individual. It’s a girbloss’s resignation letter to her own delusion.

‘What Was That’ is a frantic, up-beat anthem about the longing and acceptance that comes in your late twenties: the period after you’ve tended to the scars of your adolescence and find yourself detached from—until you realize that even though it’s mended, the grief never left you.

We see Lorde at her most reflective point yet, acknowledging that she’s still conflicted by the experiences she thought she had gotten over, as seen in lines such as the chorus: “Since I was seventeen, I gave you everything / Now we wake from a dream / Well, baby, what was that?”

It’s ‘Dancing On My Own,’ but instead of dancing to forget, Lorde is dancing to remember. She’s bitter—towards the person who wronged her, the people who made her feel like she had to move on, and most importantly, herself for becoming so detached from who she is.

In asking a sleuth of vindictive rhetorical questions, like the reproached repetition of the song’s hook and title, ‘What Was That?’, and in lines like “Do you know you’re still with me, when I’m out with my friends?”, she condemns both the other person and herself as she attempts to answer these questions to no avail.

Much like her song ‘Green Light’, the lead single of Melodrama, she is stuck in a cycle of being chained to these ailments. Mirroring both the sonic relinquishment of ‘Green Light’s’ production and lyricism, ‘What Was That’ takes a more sober approach into subdued ecstasy.

With lines like “I wish I could get my things and just let go” and “But honey, I’ll be seein’ you ‘ever I go” on ‘Green Light’, Lorde relishes in this sentiment again, once more entrapped by both a longing to move and a completely supernatural inability to, even eight years later.

However, this time around, she understands the severity of slinking back into those old habits.
Writing “I face reality” and “Now we wake from a dream”, she juxtaposes the almost manic slip back into the labyrinth of her past with her conscious self-awareness of what she’s doing.

As is with many of Lorde’s songs, there’s no resolution to this grief. We’re in the past once more, but are also stuck in the in between of present and future. This is a common thread that links every Lorde project together: she’s always on the cusp of discovering, of becoming.

As the lead single of her upcoming project, ‘What Was That’ impeccably sets the scene for these ruminations to be explored in further detail both lyrically and sonically in the album. Even if her rhetorical questions aren’t answered, perhaps she will—through exploring herself in this project—come to understand the source of why she’s asking them.